Blog Articles

06/28/17 This is just a reminder that an "index" to major posts at the Epicurean Philosophy Facebook page is available here at the EF Wiki. Due to space and time constraints this list does not include every post, but is intended to catch posts with significant original content, and especially those where the discussion goes into detail about a point that might be useful for reference later. If you happen to see a post missing that you would like to see added, just let Cassius know by email

Epicurean philosophy is best known for its advocacy of “Pleasure” as the guide to life. Epicurus taught that Nature endows humans (and all animate beings) with a faculty of perceiving feelings either of pleasure and pain. There is no natural faculty for directly perceiving “good” and “bad,” “right” and “wrong,” “holy” and “evil,” or even “indifferent.” The only guide to living with

I continue to believe that formulations of ataraxia that imply that passivity (all we have to do is suppress pain) is sufficient are overly broad and play into the hand of stoic thinkers, needlessly ceding ground to them that is not theirs to claim. In a total quantify of experience, suppressing pain does not magically equate to pleasure itself without further action, else death would be the equivalent of the best life.

06/20/17 - In order to provide maximum flexibility and ease of use in documenting core materials, content is being moved from the Epicureandocs.com website over to the EpicureanFriends Wiki. Epicureandocs.com will remain online and the existing content will remain available, but primary links should be moved over to the Wiki website where the most recent updates will be available. If anyone has any issues with format or usability of the Wiki format, please let me know.

06/19/17 - Happy Day-Before-The-Twentieth! In this case, it's also the day before the day before Haris Dimitriadis releases his new book "Epicurus and The Pleasant Life - Living By The Philosophy of Nature." Be sure to get yours soon. Here's the announcement. And here's the Amazon page.

06/18/17 - From here on EpicureanFriends.com will devote its front page to news items, including recent important Articles and Posts in the Forum. The material formerly on this page has been moved to the LINKS page.

Christos Yapijakis recently presented a seminar on Genetics and Bioethics about 10 days ago at the University of Cyprus postgraduate program in Biological Sciences. The context of the presentation was the news of the recent gene-edited babies born due to a Chinese scientist.

From Christos Yapijakis: I have translated for you and our international friends my Greek presentation slides at the 9th Panhellenic Symposium of Epicurean Philosophy. [The title is "Mistakes of Cognitive Perception and Epicurean Prudence.] This is exactly what I presented (colors, images, citations, except with Greek text). As you will see my presentations aims at a wide audience, but at the same time anonymously to the few people among us that distort Epicurean views. Feel free to

In 1453 the Ottomans conquered Constantinople by abolishing the Eastern Roman Empire, a fact which had a significant impact on the rest of Christian Europe. One of the most important impacts was that the Ottomans became masters of Silk Road, the land route that united Medieval Europe with East Asia, and especially with India and China. This resulted in the astronomical rise of the products of these regions, and in particular the spices that Europeans used in food preservation. The

I have a story to tell you about a neighbor and his dog, but first I would like to share with you some thoughts on Epicurean Doctrine 40: “As many as possess the power to procure complete security from their neighbors, these also live most pleasantly with one another, since they have the most certain pledge of guarantee, and after they have enjoyed the fullest intimacy, they do not lament the previous departure of a dead friend, as though he were to be

I think it's important that we begin to present Epicurean philosophy through podcasts and other audio-video means, so as a test I put together this basic Youtube presentation. I haven't edited the sound and this includes all the unprofessional "uhs" that come with someone who has no podcasting experience. Despite that, however, I think this presentation might be useful, so I am making it available here. The slide presentation itself can be found and downloaded at

Understanding Epicurus takes considerable effort, but not because the doctrines are difficult - they're not! The problem is that Epicurean philosophy has been heavily criticized for more than two thousand years, and most of the articles and commentary that have been produced over that time are by people who are critical of it and have no desire to present the philosophy clearly and fully. The only book-length work that even attempts to do so is Norman DeWitt's "Epicurus and His

One of the abilities of the EpicureanFriends.com forum software is that it handles the publishing of longer "Articles" that can then be tagged and featured for various uses around the site, such as on the home page, where they will receive greater attention than standard Forum posts. This feature is intended to be reserved for articles of a longer and more enduring significance than regular forum posts, such as those featured at present, which focus on significant academic articles.